Manila, Manila

     From a window in the National Museum of the Philippines...

  Teodoro F. Valencia circle in Rizal Park.  A 40-foot statue of Lapu-lapu stands in the center.  I have just learned something today: 

This statue is moving to Cebu?

Nuvali Transport Terminal

Yes you can take a bus non-stop from the Nuvali Transport Terminal (next to Robinson's supermarket in Solenad 2), to Makati-Manila and Bonifacio Global City.

According to a security guard:

No, the bus is not the Nuvali-branded nice big tourist bus parked there.

There are 2 buses, either from Jam or Star?

One goes to the Bonifacio Global City (BGC) , stops at bus stops within the BGC, and ultimately at the Market!Market!. The other goes to the LRT Taft Buendia Station.

The LRT Bus sometimes reaches SRO. (Standing room only), and although supposed to leave at 6:30, often leaves before that time.

The BGC Bus is less full, with empty seats sometimes, is supposed to leave at 7:00 a.m. but leaves before then sometimes, sometimes as early as 6:30.

Here is what we saw and experienced:

1. The Jam bus going to LRT Taft Buendia was already filled.  I drove my husband to the terminal...at 6:15 all he could take was an aisle seat.

2.  It left at exactly 6:22 a.m. 

3.  It stopped at the Paseo de Santa Rosa bus stop, very briefly. Presumably to pick up a passenger.

4.  It was at Osmena highway by around 7:30 a.m.

5.  The screen on-board showed that the LRT Buendia station was crowded.

6.  Meanwhile the BGC bus was from Worthy Transport.

7.  The BGC bus was less than half filled by 6:20 a.m.

8.  There were other vehicles (wives, presumably, and personal drivers) dropping passengers off for both buses.

So there you have it.  I THINK the fare is Php 90. 

A friend from Taguig right at the BGC wanted to come to Nuvali via this bus...but the trip from BGC is at 6:30 pm.  

The alternative is the "complex" in Balibago, Sta. Rosa.  The car wash owner at the Caltex station on Laguna blvd. told me he takes buses from there, but boards it outside the Waltermart Sta. Rosa.  SRO by the time the bus gets to that point though.  At the "complex" there are also UV Express vans. 
Outside South Supermarket there are vans as well. But all these are destined only for the Alabang terminal.


Let me know how your trip goes? Anybody out there? Yoohoo?


  

Manila, Manila

Manila City Hall Clock tower as seen from a building on UN Avenue

 I take it back---I do miss Manila after all. Not this Manila around the City Hall with squalor included...

but this Manila Bay...smell (or stench) and all.
40 years of life in Sangley Point Cavite, Las Pinas, Pasay, and Paranaque plus a strong olfactory sense combine to base my life's memories in this west area. Memories triggered by...this bay's air.

Dragon boat training

Manila Bay; Cavite on the horizon

     I've raved about Santa Rosa, Laguna, and claim not to miss Manila. It is true, I, and as I found out, other friends who have relocated, do not feel the need to go to METRO Manila.

Inside Fort Santiago

      Old Manila, I did not realize I missed. Until a return to Fort Santiago and the walls of Intramuros this week.  From a childhood of picnics with family in the grounds of the Cultural Center by the water, getting there by walking on Taft Avenue; to my twenties when I would go to the Fort on spontaneous drives, through weddings, events, tours...Intramuros is my Manila.  The random trips in my twenties were actually whenever I felt down and in need of solitude, a nearby escape.

      

    Strange that the history of dungeons, the captivity, colonial rule and martyrdom, were my refuge...and provided me a return to a feeling of ''freedom".   

     I still fantasize (albeit overly-romantically---life wasn't exactly easy especially if you were an Indio; it is always the toilet system in Casa Manila that reminds of how satisfied I am living in this century). Nick Joaquin's stories add fuel to this fantasy...

---anyway, as I was saying I still fantasize about how it would have been like...

    to reach Manila via the Pasig river the way Rizal did from Laguna.  

The grounds certainly look much prettier than my husband and I recall. We each have our own sentimental memories of visits as children with family, weddings, events and school tours...most of all, memories of ...dates with other people!

    Now my trips back to the old walled city have added memories...With a child experiencing it for the first   time..."everything old is new again".  It is joyful to hear such a young one exclaim "I love the Old Town!"  She named it such and it was she who begged to "go back to the Old Town".  It was nice hearing her beg to return to the bay "to see the sun set into the water".  Manila may be ugly, unplanned, and impoverished in parts. It is still my Manila. I'm still happy in Santa Rosa, but the familiarity of this old city, the knowledge (and stench, yike) of its streets in my blood make me. Maybe, in my forties, roots and the sense of belonging someplace have finally mattered more than ever.

"The flooded"

     That is what my four year old says when I turn on the news on TV.  Born in 2008, the child has come to view "flooded" as a common occurrence but outside of her dear "Sanna Rowza" (I blame cartoons for the accent. I have taken to saying Santa Rosa like a Mexican would just to correct this). 

   But I am not trying to be funny today. If I try, it's to make up for lack of sunshine, and because of the sad and anxiety-inducing videos on all the local news channels this morning. It's been raining for too long, and the Marikina river is nearing 20mm as I type.  I feel so much for the people on roofs, for people watching the water rise from the windows. I remember the dread.  It's what got us to finally move out of where we were, and to this place.

    In 2008, when my child was just 3 months old, the creek that runs behind our apartment overflowed for the first time since we moved in in 2002.  In 2002, right before we moved in in September, there was a warning.  The first floor guest toilet had silt around its drain.  Our neighbor's driver welcomed us to the village by telling us how snakes and creatures had flowed through from the rear to the front in the past.   So for the next three years, there were efficient dredging operations right before the no-fail 1st week of September flooding on that street.  The flood never entered the houses and were not due to the creek. It always receded quickly so people were complacent.  Until 2007.

   Actually our warning came in September 2007, right when I conceived.  We came home from a trip away to find our garage with silt.  The cat's dishes were everywhere, my "outside slippers" were separated. One was gone, the other was somewhere far.  Clearly, the garage had flooded.  It happened the day before our arrival.

  It was then I learned from helpers that the first week of September ALWAYS saw a flood on our street.

  Fast forward to September 2008. I nervously watched from the window as the water level on the street rose.  My then 3 month old baby was nursing quietly. It was 6pm.  Baby at breast*, I inspected the emergency exit grills, figuring out how to get out on to the garage roof. And from the roof, would there be a boat? I called my dad in a panic, asking about how to ask for a 6x6 truck from the military. I was that afraid.

  It was too dark by then to see the creek from the other bedroom.  But I heard the water raging and when I shone a flashlight on it, it was horribly high. My husband then hollered that water was entering our back door!  I tossed him the big synthetic-fabric "Ilocos" blanket as he duct-taped the door bottom.  The water that entered was then filtered! It was unbelievably clear.   We shut the power off, quickly grabbed the bread and water bottles for my baby to take upstairs.  By then my baby was asleep in her crib.  I looked out the window to the next door neighbor's house and saw their helpers frantically mopping up water in their dining room too.  But why was their power still on?!

  Meanwhile the helpers out on the street were cheerful, laughing. I felt so helpless, as I felt they did not know water was coming in from the creek. 

   To this day I am so grateful the water reached only my tsinelas.  My feet did not even get wet. 

    And the next year, by January, we made the decision to move.  Not due mainly to the flood, but as we learned by Ondoy 2009, a truly good move we were blessed to have been able to make.

*An aside:  This situation made me 100 times more grateful than I already was about breastfeeding.  Contamination-free, and available anytime unless mom is under extreme stress from the conditions.  I was surprised my baby quietly nursed that evening all while I moved about stressing over the flood. She slept just as well, more soundly than usual in fact.  My husband and I went about cleaning up the portion of the first floor in the dark, and having pizza delivered while she slept.

Rain in Santa Rosa

...feels moderate all the time.  There is a strong tropical storm, "Falcon" passing the northeast area of the country, and Manila has been flooding again.  Traffic was terrible today what with non-stop rains.  Here, it was on/off rain, wind and now at midnight, calm.  When Metro Manila began flooding during Ondoy, we were largely unaffected. Well, the technopark side of Santa Rosa, that is.  There were areas down at the bayan, starting from bgy Balibago and down to the Laguna Bay area, that were waist deep in water.

Many times, were enjoyed sunny skies while Metro Manila was dark and rainy.  Of course, this is due in part to our location away from the ocean, with the Tagaytay ridge bordering the flat lands.

While it is a blessing to live in mostly pleasant weather with moderate, refreshing rains here, we are no less sympathetic to everyone stuck in traffic or wading through floods. I know I often sound too enthused about this place to friends and relatives...but the truth is, watching traffic reports on the nightly news really makes me glad I'm away from that stressful city. Now even typhoon reports make me doubly relieved I'm not there. We do worry about everyone else.